Hundreds of people, including Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch L K Advani and the party’s national president Amit Shah, yesterday bid farewell to Ananth Kumar, as his mortal remains were cremated at a state funeral with military honours here.
The 59-year-old parliamentary affairs minister died on Monday at a private hospital here due to multiple organ failure.
Even as the army band sounded the bugle to mark the last rites, a 21-gun salute was given to the body while still in the glass casket draped in the Tricolour.
Kumar’s younger brother Nand Kumar lit the funeral pyre. His widow Tejeshwani, daughters Aishwariya and Vijeta and other family members were present at the Chamarajpet crematorium.
Advani, Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and other ministers including Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Harsh Vardhan and Mahesh Sharma laid wreathes and paid homage.
Karnataka Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar, state Legislative Council chairman Basavaraj Horatti and the BJP’s state leaders, including state unit president B S
Yeddyurappa were present on the solemn occasion.
In view of space constraints at the old crematorium, several people, including party cadres and Kumar’s supporters were restrained from entering the premises.
Vehicular traffic was diverted and security stepped up at the venue to prevent any untoward incident.
The cortege in a flower-bedecked military vehicle was brought in a procession for the last rites from the National College grounds at Basavngudi where it was kept for public viewing.
Earlier in the day, Kumar’s body was shifted from his residence at Basavangudi to the BJP state unit office in Malleshwaram.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays a wreath as he pays his last respects to Ananth Kumar in Bengaluru yesterday.
